Book #8691 - Blackbeard's Ghost Comic Book

Today's thing of interest to nobody else but me is the comic book novelization of my favorite late 60s weird-ass Disney film, Blackbeard's Ghost!

Magical, isn't it?

Well anyways, since I've talked wayyyyyy too much about this movie before, I won't go into the whole detail of the synopsis of the film again, so we'll talk about this crazy comic book!

For some reason, the comic book starts off with a scene that takes place about 15 minutes into the film and then flashbacks to the beginning. Confusarama!

Also, why does Dean Jones' cartoon character version look nothing like him, and exactly like Generic White Guy #993842?

So, the story continues and there's some great panels that show people narrating while something confusing is happening to them -- like this motorcycle cop who is being attacked by the drunken ghost of Blackbeard.

Help! I forgot to take my anti-psychotic medication

and now I can't stop narrating!

Then, randomly a couple pages later, there is a 3 page break in the story for some odd pieces of confusingness that have nothing to do with anything regarding Blackbeard's Ghost! My favorite of these things, though, is this page entitled Jest for Fun, featuring a happy picture of a an overpopulated barrel of monkeys and a bunch of 2-3 line jokes that apparently weren't good enough for a popsicle stick.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

So then we are thrown violently back into the story and into a crazy race where Blackbeard is screwing around with everything and helping Godolphin win so that an illegal bet that was made can be collected to help fund an old ladies' hotel. Yippee!! 

Soooooo, they win the race and the guy who runs the illegal gambling parlor who took the illegal bet on the illegal race from the illegal ghost of Blackbeard decides to not pay them their money... which is illegal! 

So the illegal ghost of Blackbeard and Dean Jones and Suzanne Pleshette rush over to the illegal gambling hall and attempt to get their illegal winnings from the illegal Silky Seymour!

And in all the illegal hubbub, this happens...

Hallelujah.

This is my favorite comic book panel of all time. Just pure genius.

So anyways, as you can guess, everything happens in favor of the ghost of Blackbeard and Dean Jones and Godolphin college and the old ladies' hotel thing, so we have our patented Disney happy ending.

Oh, and then we top it all off with this frightening advertisement for Golden Magazine.

Is Cracky on crack? Tune in next week to find out!

You can download the Blackbeard's Ghost comic book HERE!

Arrrrrrr!

The William Castle Memorabilia (Part 2)

Today's grooviness is the full set of lobby cards from William Castle's film, Project X!

Although it's not technically a "great" film, Project X has got a few cool things going for it. First, it's (obviously) directed by William Castle, and it's his only Sci-Fi film. Second, the psychedelicarrific special effects were produced by Hanna-Barbera (who later recycled some of the character animation effects into Johnny Quest). But my favorite thing about the film is the really entertaining performance from Henry Jones, who plays a semi-mad-scientist that hooks computers up to a spy's brain and projects his dreams and memories onto some sort of hologram monitor thing! Super cool. I definitely enjoy this film a whole bunch.

As you'll notice from looking at the lobby cards, there is also some really awesome Star Trek-y set design, and in fact, they used a bunch of sound effects from the show. Most recognizable though, is the classic Star Trek sliding door sound effect!

The movie, which is set in the future year of 2118, is about a government panel bringing a cryogenically frozen spy back to reality to help them figure out what sort of crazy people-killing device the evil Chinese have created. Also, for some reason, they feel the need to distract him by inducing an amnesia type situation and make him believe he lives in the year 1968 as a bank robber on the run, hiding in a rural farm house.

Yep. It's your classic "amnesia = interesting Sci-Fi plot device" kind of story!

Before you ask, YES, I do own

this poster.

The movie has been notoriously hard to find for almost forever, but it's finally being released by the  magical gods at Olive Films on DVD and Blu-Ray, followed by another Castle oddity, the comedy The Spirit is Willing starring Sid Caesar!! That's right, the first William Castle films being put on Blu-Ray are going to be two of his most obscure films. I find that odd, but hey, I'm not complaining! I'm so excited, I pre-ordered both of them two months ago!

Below you'll find the complete set of eight promotional lobby cards from Project X. These cards are perfect, as they give you an excellent feel for the aesthetic of the film, along with some of the super cool poster art, including William Castle's trademark silhouette logo.

By the way, the last one is my favorite, but that's only because I like brains floating in gigantic fishbowls of  Hi-C Ecto-Cooler.

And as always, you can CLICK on the photos to enable the ENLARGE-O-MATIC PHOTO EMBIGGENER®!!

Record #1985 - The Goon Squad - Eight Arms To Hold You (12" Single)

Alright, Goonies... Today's record is the incredible superduperly magnificientalicious 12" single "Eight Arms To Hold You" from the soundtrack to The Goonies.

So, you might be saying to yourself "Hey, Jeremy. Why is there a song about an octopus on The Goonies soundtrack?! There's no octopus in The Goonies! You lying, dastardly son of a motherless goat!"

To answer this hypothetical question that nobody asked, I'd have to point you to this video of a (dun dun dunnnnnnn) DELETED SCENE FROM THE GOONIES!

Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Wooo! I win!

Anyways, so they wrote this song for the movie, and the song didn't end up being in the finished movie, but they still made a single for it and, well, the rest is history... I guess.

So there's 3 tracks on this. The first is the regular old vocal track, then you've got the "Bonus Beat" version, which is basically the short version of the song with more bass drum and no vocals. Lastly, you've got the "DUB" version, which is the song with 10 extra seconds of filler. Whee!

You can download the "Eight Arms To Hold You" 12" single HERE!

And, yes the file is ginormous -- just like the octopus... and Chunk's belly.

Hollywood Walk of Fame Trading Cards (Part 1 of 4)

Today's grooviness is the collection of random group of Hollywood Walk of Fame Trading Cards that I own for some reason.

Today's card is the always ridiculously entertaining Jerry Lewis!

Ewww that is one bad picture they used on this one. And the back one isn't so great either. Meh.

I'm still confused as to who thought it was a good idea to make trading cards out of Hollywood celebrities. Then again, I don't understand trading cards in general. There is a lot of useless information on this card of Mr. Lewis, but then again, the basic purpose of trading cards is to share this kind of stuff with people who don't care in a quick and portable way.

Also, WHAT'S THE QUESTION ON CARD #196?! I MUST KNOW!!


Enjoy, I suppose.

The William Castle Memorabilia (Part 1)

William Castle is by far my favorite film director. He made some of the most fun and entertaining films of all time and was a master horror filmmaker and showman. Most of his movies are some of my favorite films. He created gimmicks and a filmgoing experience that was copied by some of the more popular great filmmakers, including his idol Alfred Hitchcock.

By the way, Psycho would not exist as the classic it is if William Castle's House on Haunted Hill didn't.

Some of William Castle's most infamous gimmicks include an ILLUSION-O ghost viewer for 13 Ghosts, a $1,000 life insurance policy for Macabre, seat-belts for I Saw What You Did, and PERCEPT-O shocking seats for The Tingler!

Because he is my favorite filmmaker, I have collected tons of his cool movie memorabilia, and this is the first descent into that abyss of Castletoscity!

Today, we've got the giveaway coin from one of his few comedies, ZOTZ!.

So in the film, Tom Poston is this eccentric ancient languages professor who comes into possession of a coin with the word ZOTZ on it. Inscribed on the letters it tells him that the coin will give him magic powers to slow down time, cause instant pain, or death. Hilarious mishaps ensue at a magical rate, and it basically becomes William Castle's version of the Disney film The Absent-Minded Professor.

THE MAGIC WORD FOR FUN!

(and yes, I do own this poster)

It's not Castle's greatest movie, and it's far from his worst. It has some cool supporting roles played by Jim Backus (aka Mr. Magoo and Mr. Howell from Gilligan's Island) and the Marx Brothers' old lady comic foil, Margaret Dumont. There's also some cameos by super awesome 1950s/60s character actors Fred Clark, James Milholin, and Tom Poston's old comedy partner Louis Nye.

Instead of something as insane as shocking your butt every time Tom Poston yelled ZOTZ! (which would have been super amazing), the gimmick this time was the coin. They handed these things out to everybody who bought a ticket, and now I've got two of them, and obviously, they are ZOTZTASTIC!!

Well that's it for today, but check out the AWESOME trailer for ZOTZ! below!

ZOTZ!... Uh, I mean ENJOY!